Between knock lower, drag out fights with “Fool for Love” co-star Jasmine Guy this month, we’d a minute to congratulate True Colors Theatre artistic director Kenny Leon on being selected among Atlanta magazine’s “50 Who Made Atlanta” within our 50th anniversary issue now on stands.

That’s huge!” stated Leon. Wow, I’m honored and humbled. From the city I live and love in? That’s major. Playboy has existed that lengthy? Happy 50th and congratulations!”

Tonight, Leon and Guy open a restricted four-week engagement of Mike Shepard’s “Fool for Love” in the Balzer Theatre at Herren’s downtown. Once the play about two former enthusiasts imploding in the seedy Mojave Desert motel opened up on Broadway in 1983, New You are able to Occasions critic Frank Wealthy described the end result as “an indoor rodeo.” Apple, meanwhile, has always chosen over consider the 90-minute promise of verbal warfare as “Who’s Scared of Virginia Woolf” in cowboy hats.

Initially, Leon was scheduled to stay in New You are able to this spring preparing the MLK-themed “The Mountaintop” starring his old Atlanta pal Samuel L. Jackson however the production has been pressed for this fall.

“Fool for Love” reunites Leon with actor-director and True Colors mainstay Guy. “It’s been this type of great experience dealing with her,” stated Leon. “I really feel more responsible being an actor now. I recognize I can’t wake up there and mess this up! I must provide the audiences of Atlanta who’ve supported me many years the most effective I must offer. It’s frightening and exciting all simultaneously.Inches

Of Shepard’s play, Leon told us: “It’s a universal theme and we’re altering up just a little by presenting an African-American Western couple in it. By having an integrated family, the storyline gets to be more universal. It explores the theme of affection and also the folks you like but can’t stand. We have all experienced the problem where we like people but we shouldn’t be for sale them but we can’t do without them within our lives. Above all else, ‘Fool for Love’ explores what love is really.Inches

Still, rehearsing screaming matches that become physical altercations could be emotionally exhausting for Leon and Guy. “It’s been a powerful wedding rehearsal period, trust me!Inches Leon permitted. “We always make certain we hug one another following a really intense scene. It’s been fun being within the room by having an actress you actually respect though. You realize she’s the back and she or he knows I’ve hers. When Jasmine first left Hollywood and returned to Atlanta, I gave her her first play. She did ‘Miss Evers’ Boys’ at True Colors. She advised me lately which was the very first non-musical play she’d experienced. I did not realize that. I’ve just always considered her an incredible actress. For all of us in the future full circle with this particular 2 yrs later and obtain to do something together can be a further search for our working relationship. I believe the audiences in Atlanta will discover this to become something real special and different. I understand one factor: They’re getting the two of us giving 110 percent available online for!Inches

Saturday night’s performance of “Fool for Love” also works as a True Colors benefit (buy benefit tickets here). We requested Leon to articulate what True Colors non-subscribers have to know about his theater company’s work. “We’re constantly exploring individuals problems with diversity,” he stated. “We all bleed exactly the same bloodstream and also the greatest approach we take to have of honoring one another is thru our story-telling. We want the funding to be able to continue telling individuals tales. At True Colors, we’re saying, ‘Hey, all of us reside in exactly the same world. Let’s recognition one another.’ Finding yourself in Atlanta, the house of the civil legal rights movement, you should be leaders in the area of diversity. Personally i think a really strong link with people like Andy Youthful, Maynard Jackson, Hank Aaron and Ted Turner. There is a reason all of you made a decision to recognition them inside your 50th anniversary issue. They’re fundamentally of the items Atlanta is all about. We’re about Buckhead to Auburn Avenue. And spreading the word among of individuals tales on the way is the reason why Atlanta great. I can’t consider an easy method to invest my existence.”